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‘Start the presses!’ A plan to save the news: Opinion

The Shattered Mirror seeks to keep governments away from becoming the financier of news operations by instead gently rebalancing revenues between producers and distributors.

A reporter works on his story following a news conference on the release of the report "The Shattered Mirror" in Ottawa in January. "For those of us concerned that a faltering news industry can’t properly fulfill its democratic duties, that the Internet has become polluted with politically motivated misinformation and that too much money is going to distributors and too little to those who invest in employing reporters and upholding standards, it’s time to get serious," write Bob Cox and Edward Greenspon. (FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Bob Cox and Edward Greenspon

Fri., March 10, 2017

There is one thing you can count on journalists to do when they are in trouble: circle the wagons and start firing inwards. As two people who spent most our lives in news media, we know.

The Shattered Mirror, a detailed analysis of the weakened state of the news media in Canada and its consequences, has received a few shots since being released last month by the Public Policy Forum.

It has been called “high minded” and “profoundly wrong” – by the same writer. It has been criticized as opening the door to government influence over the news by three journalists who worked at a newsmagazine that received government funding. Others have said fake news isn’t a Canadian problem.

All this discussion is for the good. But for those of us concerned that a faltering news industry can’t properly fulfill its democratic duties, that the Internet has become polluted with politically motivated misinformation and that too much money is going to distributors and too little to those who invest in employing reporters and upholding standards, it’s time to get serious.

News organizations have worked to mask their decline by reducing payrolls and writing fewer stories. But this is a strategy with limited running room. Every day more journalistic lights dim or go out altogether.

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It’s not just that the situation is growing worse; the downward trajectory is gathering speed. Meanwhile, digital-only alternatives, while injecting a gaggle of new voices into the national conversation, have failed to develop the business models necessary to support significant numbers of journalists.

And by this, we don’t mean just people who provide commentary; we mean professionals who work the courthouses, city halls, school boards, legislatures and cover the issues that arise from them. In other words, the institutions and debates of our democracy. The vast majority of news still originates with traditional media companies.

There are those who would say: “Why should we care? That’s your problem.”

The simple answer: “Look south.” Can you imagine what U.S. President Donald Trump might be up to without news media reporting on his actions, calling his administration to account, investigating what is true and what is false, being a trusted interlocutor for whistleblowers willing to take a risk on getting out the truth?

An independent news media is a critical check on power, which is why the opening act of authoritarians is often to shut down media outlets and even kill journalists. Today, the new economics of technological change is depleting journalistic capacity, by which we mean trained reporters who work beats day in and day out, cultivate sources and can see when things are amiss.

The tension between the political class and a well-resourced news media is as essential to democratic societies as an independent judiciary. Often unruly, sometimes rude and wrong on occasion, journalists produce a public good, like schools and clean water.

In Canada, with its smaller population (smaller yet in provinces and cities), the ability to invest in reporters and digital technology is even more circumscribed than in the U.S. This is particularly true for communities across the country, about 250 of which have either lost their local paper or seen it merge – without a corresponding rise in digital-only news services.

The great democratizing force of the Internet has added what some researchers have called “the second layer of vibrancy.” From a news point of view, it has opened up the world to anybody who wants to communicate. But the returns have accrued mostly to free riders who benefit from content without investing in its creation.

Two large global companies have come to hold sway over the news, advertising and data in a manner never seen before. Even massive, worldwide organizations can’t generate the ad views or digital subscribers needed to underwrite the costs of their newsrooms.

It is not the fault of these so-called platform companies that they’ve done their job well. But this imbalance of revenues is extracting an increasing societal cost, one that needs to be addressed before, not after, irreparable damage occurs to reporting of the civic life of communities across the country.

The Shattered Mirror provides a menu of solutions – some quite simple, some more complex. It seeks to keep governments away from becoming the financier of news operations by instead gently rebalancing revenues between producers and distributors. This has long been the case, for instance, with the cable industry, which is required to pay a small levy to support the creation of the content from which it benefits.

No matter how messy, no matter how many rifles we point at our own wagons, this is a necessary debate in Canada’s 150th year. Nobody should wait until an economically enfeebled news media is outgunned by the purveyors of untruthful news.

Bob Cox is the chair of News Media Canada and publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press. Edward Greenspon is president and CEO of the Public Policy Forum.

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